NEWS

Coronado National Forest and CASA Collaborations:
CASA continues to forge and strengthen relationships with the Coronado National Forest! 

The Coronado National Forest wants to contract our own Eric Ruljancich for a few days to assess Crags Against Humanity and develop a plan to improve the area as part of their commitment to improving and supporting climbing areas. Once the plan is completed, the Forest Service will review it and then hopefully work in partnership with CASA to implement the work. There will be volunteer opportunities, so stay tuned!

---

US Forest Service recognizing Eric Ruljancich’s work:
"As a trail user, I love the Santa Catalina trail system, and it is an honor to be able to lend my professional skills to their improvement," said Outslope Trail Solutions owner Eric Ruljancich.

USDA Photo of the crew working on Pontatoc Trail #410 (12/22/2022). Red shirt: Eric Ruljancich Yellow shirt: Troy Swank Blue shirt: Cory Martin

Since 2021 Outslope Trail Solutions has been working in partnership with the National Forest Foundation (NFF) and the Coronado National Forest to help repair trails within the Santa Catalina Ranger District that were impacted by the Bighorn Fire of 2020.

Through a combination of volunteer events and targeted technical crew work, Outslope Trail Solutions has completed repairs on:

• Butterfly
• Finger Rock
• Pontatoc
• Esperero
• Ventana Canyon
• Cathedral Rock
• Romero
• Green Mountain
• Box Camp
• Brush Corral
• Marshal Gulch Trails

Recently, the crew has removed 1.5 miles of dense brush from the East side of the Cathedral Rock Trail, and installed erosion control features to repair a heavily eroded section of the Pontatoc Trail.

Before and after photos of Ponatoc Canyon Trail work.

Additionally, a volunteer event on Ventana Canyon made improvements to make the trail easier to follow at the 2-mile mark.Work completed on the Pontatoc Trail:

• 7 erosion control steps
• 2 armored drains
• 3 standard drains

For more information, see the links below:

• Pontatoc Trail #410
• Outslope Trail Solutions

In 2018 CASA put together a Recreation Trails Program proposal to provide maintenance and restoration on heavily used Santa Catalina Ranger District Forest Service trails that are used by rock climbers, hikers, equestrians and mountain bikers.

The proposal stated that CASA would primarily be maintaining and restoring trails different from a 2016 Grant, but will be returning to a few areas that need additional work.

The project accomplished the following goals:

• Utilized the local Arizona Conservation Corps (AZCC), with crews composed of up to 100% local youth, to perform maintenance and restoration work.

 

• Continued to develop and implement, in partnership with the Santa Catalina Ranger District, a training program to teach all trail users (rock climbers, hikers, equestrians, and mountain bikers) how to perform basic trail maintenance to United States Forest Service standards.

 

• Coordinated and deployed AZCC crews and local volunteers sanctioned by the Santa Catalina Trails Project training program (above) to perform maintenance and restoration work as needed by the Santa Catalina Ranger District.

 

• Integrated targeted trail maintenance with CASA's (Climbing Association of Southern Arizona) existing volunteer Adopt a Crag program through joint events with AZCC and other user groups such as the Arizona Trail Association.

Mount Lemmon Highway Cleanup
May 1, 2022

CASA volunteers came out strong on Sunday, May 1

They covered a lot of ground from the top at Marshall Gulch down to Hairpin!

• Nearly 1000 gallon of trash
• 1 large table
• A bumper
• 30 feet of pipe
• and a dinner plate

CASA volunteers removed this and more from various locations on Mount Lemmon.

Thanks to all of our volunteers and supporters who made this possible.

Pontatoc Trail on Feb 27

A big thanks to all of our volunteers and the @accessfund National Conservation Team who came out and did the following work on Pontatoc Trail on Feb 27:

• 9 Brand new stone steps to prevent erosion and make travel safer
• 9 Brand new drains to prevent erosion
• 5 Cleaned drains to continue to prevent erosion

---

Thank you, SoAZ!

2021 Accomplishments